Resident Evil Lead Teases Series’ ‘Conclusion’ Coming In the Next 10 Years

Resident Evil is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Capcom’s iconic horror series has been a foundational part of the survival horro genre, and it’s still delivering amazing entries, such as this year’s Resident Evil Requiem. Still, that doesn’t mean it will be around forever. With remakes of past titles catching up to new mainline games, the series may be entering a new phase, which may bring about its conclusion.

In an interview with Yahoo Japan, executive producer Jun Takeuchi teased that the Resident Evil franchise’s overarching narrative could come to an end shockingly soon. Takeuchi called Requiem the end of Capcom’s original ten-year plan for the series that originated during planning stages for the Resident Evil 2 remake. Looking forward, he revealed that, “I think the conclusion will come in the next 10 years” (via machine translation). In that timeframe, Takeuchi said there will be multiple titles for fans to look forward to.

What that conclusion actually looks like is hard to guess. It feels wild to believe that Capcom would truly put an end to Resident Evil. Perhaps the “conclusion” Takeuchi talked about has to do with the characters and narrative arcs the series is currently focused on. Requiem itself felt like a survey of the series’ past and present, bringing back familiar faces like Leon Kennedy. Perhaps there is a world in which we get a fresh start or a complete reboot. Capcom almost did something like that with Resident Evil 7, which served as a soft reboot but still had connections to past games.

The Resident Evil: Code Veronica remake is more important than you think

The continued Resident Evil remakes were also a point of discussion for Takeuchi. The producer teased that there is a reason Capcom has chosen to remake past games in a specific order. “If you play through all of them, I think you’ll realize the meaning behind the order of the remakes,” he said. The upcoming Code Veronica remake is being released after the Resident Evil 4 remake, despite the original release order being swapped. Takeuchi further hinted that the Code Veronica remake will tweak things from the original game to be more in line with current canon.

As for what the overarching narrative Takeuchi believes Resident Evil is focused on right now, he did point specifically to “seeing the true nature of Spencer.” He is referring to Oswell Spencer, a founder of the Umbrella Corporation and overall antagonist of the series who has been dead since Resident Evil 5. Requiem brought Spencer back through flashbacks in a way that shattered players’ long-held beliefs about the character, so it is interesting to see Takeuchi reveal this is all part of a bigger plan. The Code Veronica remake will be the next step in that plan, and positions the game as a main entry in the story rather than the spinoff it was initially perceived as.